Category Archives: vegetables

May 23 4 comments
beans, slaws, quiches, mashers, and casseroles, grilled, barbequed, smoked, and fried, vegetables

Grilled Potato Salad

You know those moments when you say “Hot Damn! This is the best thing I’ve ever made!”  Yeah, I totally had one of those moments with this potato salad.  Last night Dan and I went to our first cookout of the season (which was, all night, inappropriately called a barbeque) and I partook in a few varieties of potato salad.  And there was a moment when I thought, wouldn’t this be amazing if all the vegetables were grilled, if everything was cooked but also just a little charred?

And really, seriously, it was.  It was so good.  Hands down the best potato salad I’ve ever had, and seeing as how I’ve been to more church potlucks and picnics than I can count, that actually means something.  The new apartment has (among other great things), a yard.  And since we’re on the ground floor, our door opens up into the yard which contains a patio, a garden, and a grill!  We’ve been here a week and already the grill is our favorite part.  I see a large amount of grilling in our future.

I grabbed a handful of my favorite summer vegetables, but you could vary this recipe to include whatever you wanted.  I see this potato salad as a staple in our summer, changing as our garden produces new vegetables and as things come and go out of season.  No matter what ingredients you’re using, the vegetable to grill sensation is outstanding.  I’m almost without words, which Dan will tell you is a rare occasion.

Grilled Potato Salad

3 medium new potatoes

1 red onion

1 red bell pepper

1 squash

1 cup green beans

4-6 tbsp mayonaisse

2 tbsp dijon mustard

2-3 tbsp salt

1 tbsp pepper

Boil potatoes for approximately 20 minutes or until cooked through.

While your potatoes are boiling, slice your squash in half, cut your peppers in thick strips, and slice your onion, lengthwise, in thick layers.  Snap your green beans.

Get your grill fired up.  Brush all of your vegetables with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Put your squash on first, then your peppers and onions about ten minutes later.  Cook another ten minutes, and turn.

Once your potatoes are cooked, scooped them out of the water and drop your beans into the boiling water.  Cook 2 minutes and strain.

After your vegetables on the grill have cooked another 10 minutes, remove them.  Roughly chop everything (I like a chunky potato salad) while it’s hot and mix together.  Add mayonnaise, mustard, and seasoning.  Give it a good turn and serve hot, or chill and serve cold.  And enjoy!

Apr 26 7 comments
vegetables

Sweet Potato & Rainbow Chard Gratin

This weekend, my husband was offered a job.  A really great job at a firm in Baltimore that he respects and admires, that he’s insanely excited about.  Some things (like lodging) are still a little up in the air, but, as Dan described it to my mother, we’re getting things on track.  We’re recovering.

You may ask, what are we recovering from?  Well, to be honest, living in DC was never part of the plan.  In fact, living in Maryland after I graduated was never really the plan.  Before Dan and I started dating, my plan revolved around one thing and one thing only- the Peace Corps.  I spent years tailoring my resume to fit their needs and the fall of my senior year of college I was accepted and placed, heading to the Spanish speaking Caribbean.  And then the medical screening began.

When I was in college I caught mono (from my roommate, thankyouverymuch), which morphed into shingles (I know, right?) and then, finally, an eye condition called keratitis.  Which, it turns out, the Peace Corps has a problem with.  First, they just medically deferred me.  I was crushed, but planned to work for the year long deferment and then leave.  Start my life as planned.  Soon thereafter Dan and I started dating.  When we got serious (immediately) the conversation kept circling back to what we were going to do while I was abroad.  Would we break up?  Would we do the long distance thing, me teaching AIDS education on an island far away and him eating hot pockets in Pennsylvania?  None of it made sense.  Until we decided to go together, to live my dream together.

We started planning our wedding then, all the while fighting my deferment.  My year came and passed and the Peace Corps returned my phone calls less frequently and with more cryptic responses.  Eventually they came out and said it- I was too high risk.  Even though my eyes were in remission, the threat of a relapse while I was living in a developing country was too much for the Peace Corps to agree to, so I was out.  We were out.  It’s been a long process putting the pieces back together, figuring out what our next steps were and recovering.   This website is a byproduct of the journey, one of the only things about the experience that doesn’t bring me to tears.  I was devastated when my plan came crashing down around me, and for the first time we have a definite plan outside just being together.  We’re moving to Baltimore, we’re starting over, we’re getting back on track.  And I appreciate having you along for the ride.

This whole process of apartment and job searching, moving cities, has left me feeling really emotional and nostalgic.  Living in DC was always supposed to be a stop in the road, and now it feels like it was.  The destination has changed, but with it new and exciting things have come into our lives.  For instance, I know now that I harbor a deep love of rainbow chard.  Especially when you pair it with cheese and potatoes.  I’m taking this as a good sign.

Sweet Potato & Rainbow Chard Gratin

2 cups fresh rainbow chard, chopped

1/2 sweet potato

1/2 cup milk

1 garlic clove

1 cup shredded white cheddar cheese

1/2 cup feta cheese

Peel and slice your potato.  In your ramekins (or in one larger serving dish) layer potato, chard, and cheddar.  You should have 1/2 cup chard left over.  End with a layer of cheese.

Pour the milk into the dishes, pouring along the edges so as not to disturb the cheesy layers.

Cook in a 325 oven for 45 minutes.

Pull the ramekins out and add the remaining chard.  Sprinkle feta on top and cook for another 45 minutes.  Serve.

Apr 06 4 comments
vegetables

Perfectly Light Asparagus

Okay, so first things first Internet.  We are moving.  We are moving to Baltimore.  Soon.  Maybe this month, maybe next month, but definitely soon.  We’re searching, I’ve been looking at a few places a week and we’re trying to find the one that will best suit us.  We’re moving to Baltimore because it’s a little more our style, a little more our pace, and the opportunities have led us there.  This is a great thing, we’re totally pumped.  It means being in a city we love in an area that will be a little more tailored to the lifestyle we want (ie urban).

Here’s the thing about moving (more) urban, we’re going to have to sacrifice space.  Even the biggest apartments I’ve seen are a step down in size from where we currently are (which isn’t very big) so we’ll likely be losing square footage.  And a dishwasher.  And probably all of our This End Up furniture.  My point being, I’m going to need some tips.  How do you cook in a tiny kitchen, what gadgets have you sacrificed, what do you do for storage?  I need suggestions, Internet, and you haven’t failed me yet.

On to the asparagus.  I’m reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (on loan from my sister in law Megan) and loving it.  I just got through the section on asparagus, the food her family uses to kick off their year of eating locally.  In tribute to this riveting (and inspiring if we can ever afford outdoor living space) book, I picked up some local asparagus and cooked it up to accompany a light pasta dish.  I like my asparagus cooked to a minimum and freshened with lemon juice.  It’s light, fresh, and the perfect way to honor spring’s first vegetable.


Perfectly Light Asparagus

1 bunch fresh asparagus

2 lemons

2 tbsp grated parmesan

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt & pepper

In a wide pan, bring 1/4 inch of water to a simmer.  Add juice of 1 lemon and a little s&p.  Cut the bottom 1/2 inch of the asparagus and place in the pan.  Cook 5 minutes or until bright green.  Drain, drizzle remaining lemon juice, parmesan, & s&p over, and serve.

Jan 01 2 comments
holiday, roasted meats and veggies, vegetables

Collard Greens, for Prosperity

I joke a lot here and around the interwebs about my distain for escarole.  I’ll clarify that, as an adult, I’m actually fine with escarole.  But as a child I hated it.  It was the one food that I absolutely could not eat, the only thing I couldn’t stomach.  Until I became a vegetarian, and then there were lots of things I couldn’t stomach (including meatloaf).  I read somewhere once that kids have something like twice as many tastebuds as adults, and therefore taste everything twice as intensely,which is why children often have catastrophic aversions to certain foods.

The point of this story is that my mom’s lucky New Year’s day dish was lentil soup and escarole.  Gag.  Which is why I always preferred my dad’s lucky foods, collard greens and black eyed peas.  On New Year’s Day, greens (whether they be spinach, escarole, collards, chard, etc) are served to bring prosperity.  The greens are traditionally cooked with ham, because pork symbolizes progress.  Other common foods for ringing in the New Year are beans (prosperity), fish (good luck), and anything circular, like cakes (the year comes full circle).

This year I opted for fish and collards, skipping the ham hocks and beans because after a few batches of bean soup, I’ve been kind of beaned out lately.  And when it comes cuts of the pig, I’m not the biggest ham fan (I prefer the shoulder).  Collards cooked without ham are cooked essentially the same way, just pan roasted with water or stock, served with garlic and onions.  Because collards are a tough green pan roasting is the ideal way to cook them, low and slow for 45 minutes to an hour allows them to soften and develop flavor.

Instead of resolutions this year I’ve written my “culinary life list.”  Right now it’s 100 things, but it may grow.  It’s a list of things, all food related, that I’d like to accomplish before I kick the bucket.  Do you have a life list, culinary or not?  What’s on it?

Collard Greens

3-4 large collard leaves

1/2 white onion

2 garlic cloves

Salt & pepper

Red pepper flakes

1 tsp nutmeg

2 cups mushroom broth (or vegetable stock)

3 tbsp butter

In a medium size pan, melt butter.  Mince garlic and chop the onion, and saute both in butter until soft.  Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, and red pepper.  Chop the collards into 1/2″ strips.

Add the collards a handful at a time, wilting them before you add more.  Use tongs to toss the greens with the butter and onions.  Add broth, cover.  Simmer on low heat for 45 minutes to an hour.

Uncover and allow the broth to reduce.  Serve and enjoy a year of prosperity!

 

Nov 19 0 comments
beans, slaws, quiches, mashers, and casseroles, holiday, vegetables

Potatoes Au Gratin


gratin1

I am a devotee of the potato.  Mashed, twice baked, casseroled, churned into pies, fried, you name it I love it.  One of the things I receive a lot of comments about how my family puts mayonnaise in their mashed potatoes.  Which I get, kind of, because mayo gets a bum rap, but how is it any different than putting sour cream or even whole milk in your potatoes?  We’re all trying to achieve the same thing people, creamy carby goodness.  Or in this case, one notch above- cheesy creamy carby goodness.

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The phrase “au gratin” refers to a technique where a browned crust is created with breadcrumbs or, in this case, cheese.  Potatoes au gratin are (in this recipe, at least) scalloped potatoes layered with different types of cheeses, topped with cream, and baked in a shallow dish for an extended period of time.  The end result is a crunchy top and layers of soft, gooey, incredible potatoes.  This is the kind of dish that you’ll want to make in your big casserole dish.  Because this is exactly the type of dish that my sisters and I would eat in bed while watching an entire season of Celebrity Mole the day after Thanksgiving.

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Don’t forget, springing this recipe onto your springpad, either from b&s or my springpad page, will automatically enter you to win $100!  And if you’re feeling generous, spring all my thanksgiving 2009 recipes to help me win $500!

gratin2

NEW FEATURE:  Finally, a solution to the desire to print, email, & share our recipes has arrived.  If you scroll down, just below the instructions and before the comments, you’ll see a row of icons.  Run your mouse over them and they’ll jump up to full size, revealing their function.  Enjoy!

Potatoes au Gratin

for a small casserole dish. for a larger one, double the ingredients.

5 yukon gold potatoes

1 cup heavy cream

2 garlic cloves

1 cup shredded gruyere cheese

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Peel & slice potatoes, putting them in cold water after their sliced to prevent discoloration.

Shred your cheese. In a small casserole dish, layer potatoes and cheese until you are out of both, ending with a generous layer of cheese.

In a sauce pan, scald cream with the whole garlic cloves. Right before the casserole goes into the oven, pour the cream into the dish. Pour it along the edges so as not to disturb the layers.

Bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours.